4 4.8 Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, Myanmar CSOs greatly expanded and organised as they worked to help survivors. They remain a significant positive force in the country and have been able to engage with the Government to some extent. Since 2011 Myanmar civil society groups have been granted a greater degree of latitude by the Government and have taken that opportunity to increase their activities to help people claim their rights. While many developments since the 2011 reform process have increased the space for human rights defenders to operate, there have been some disturbing recent developments, such as the arrests and imprisonment of several local journalists (see Chapter 4.1 on Freedom of Expression); the continuing arrests of peaceful demonstrators under the 2011 Peaceful Assembly Law, many of them protesting against land grabs 527; and unchecked inter-communal violence. The run-up to the General Elections scheduled to take place in November 2015; the uncertain constitutional amendment process; and the ongoing peace talks with armed ethnic minority groups are all factors which have led and may lead to greater tensions between civil society, including journalists, and the Government, and within civil society itself. 528 Moreover, people staging peaceful public protests in the context of the upcoming elections may be at risk of arrest and imprisonment by the authorities. Religious Communities Buddhist and Muslim After the controversies around how ethnic minorities could identify themselves in the March-April 2014 census, the Government decided not to publish ethnicity and religion data. 529 Analysis of census information reveals that an estimated total of 1,206,353 people were not enumerated in parts of Rakhine State, Kachin State and Kayin State. This represents 2.34 percent of the population. However the number was counted in the overall Myanmar population total figure of 51,486,253.530 The percentage of Muslims in the population is also an extremely sensitive issue in the light of recent violence and Buddhist fears of an increasing Muslim population. 531 Muslims, who live in many parts of Myanmar, are a minority of the population. AntiMuslim sentiment and discrimination are widespread in Myanmar, not only against the Rohingya, 532 a Muslim group living in Rakhine State, but also against other Muslims in different parts of the country. Inter-communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims broke out in Rakhine State during June 2012 but has also affected other areas of the country. Moreover, there has been Buddhist violence against Muslims since June 2012 not only in Rakhine State, but also in Meiktila, and to a much lesser degree in Mandalay and other parts of the country. 533 527 Burma Partnership and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, “How to Defend the Defenders?” (July 2015). 528 Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business “Civil Society Organisations and the Extractives Industries in Myanmar – a Brief Overview” (October 2014). 529 Republic of the Union of Myanmar, “2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census, Census Report Volume 2-A“ (May 2015). 530 Ibid. 531 For a discussion of Muslim population figures in the context of the March-April 2014 census, see International Conflict Group, “Myanmar Conflict Alert: A Risky Census”, (Feb. 2014). 532 The Myanmar Government does not accept the term ‘Rohingya’ and refers to the population as ‘Bengali’. 533 In Meiktila in the centre of the country, over 40 people were killed in March 2013. In July 2014 further intercommunal violence broke out in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, resulting in two deaths and dozens arrested and wounded DVB, “Mandalay riots reveal splintered community, complex agendas” (8 July 2014). 224 PAGE CHAPTER 4.8: GROUPS AT RISK